


As You Wish

by sapphireswimming



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Bodyswap, Friendship, Gen, Gen Work, Ghost Hunting, Team Phantom (Danny Phantom), The Ghost Zone (Danny Phantom), Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25054642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming
Summary: Danny should learn how to stop putting his foot in his mouth. Like. Really.
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10974232/1/As-You-Wish
> 
> For Invader Johnny, who requested Danny / Desiree body swap. Beta'd by The Cinderninja

At the loud scream that broke the silence of what had been a perfectly peaceful afternoon, Danny turned his head to see what the commotion was. And he was not at all surprised to see townsfolk running haphazardly in different directions with their arms outstretched as if the extra two foot reach would actually get them to shelter any faster.

Ghost problems, then, although he couldn't tell who the ghost of the day was quite yet.

"Cover me," he yelled to Sam and Tucker, needlessly, because they were already on their feet and moving to shield him from the gaze of anyone nearby who might be looking their way as two white rings turned Danny into his ghostly alter ego.

He rose up from between them and zoomed off down the street toward the noise, confidant that his two best friends would follow them as soon as they'd grabbed the ghost hunting equipment out of their backpacks.

Flying around the corner, Danny had to pull up short to avoid colliding into a human hurtling toward him.

"Whoa!" he yelled as he dodged to the side, watching a woman in a maroon business suit and designer glasses stop midair and suddenly turn left down the street as if she was being yanked around by an invisible rope. She appeared unharmed, so far, and had avoided collisions with the cars and the brick walls which was, of course, a plus, but from the frantic sprawling and what little he could see of her terrified expression behind the frizzy brown hair, Danny knew that he had to do something, and fast.

But what to do? Save the woman, who didn't seem to be in immediate danger despite the flying several feet off the ground with a glowing green bubble surrounding her, or find the ghost behind this before they did any more damage?

Ghost it was.

Turning away from the now quickly disappearing human, he turned to find the threat, zooming over cars and darting around corners to find the source of the problem. After a minute's heart pounding mission, nothing had happened. All of the people had long since run away, leaving the streets empty. The woman was long gone and was not being chased by an apparition of any kind. He also hadn't run into the ghost, which was odd because they were normally itching to make themselves known with a long winded speech about their plans to take over the world by this point.

"Oh come on," he complained. "This is ridiculous. Where are you?" Danny doubled back to check an alleyway that was completely empty. "I could have been at the pool by now! Stupid ghosts," he grumbled as he flew down the next street. "Won't even let me enjoy the end of my summer. Wish I didn't have to deal with this nonsense…"

And he stopped when his ghost sense finally went off. He spun around in midair to see the ghost that made him want to take back what he had just said. Because he realized that he had used the forbidden word as soon as he saw the trademark costume that so set apart the Arabian ghost from anyone else he had ever faced.

How could he have been so stupid?

"So you have wished it," Desiree smiled as her hands began to wave in front of her in a mystical pattern.

"No! I didn't mean…!" Danny threw his hands up and frantically tried to backpedal.

"So shall it be."

And with that, she released the glowing ball of energy amassing around her hands straight toward Danny. He didn't have time to even think about evading it before he was already enveloped in the green light.

"No!" he howled as he struggled fruitlessly against the energy that coursed through him.

"Danny! No! We're coming! Hold on!" he heard from a distance and he clung to the hope that help was on the way as the light invaded his mind and twisted his body into something that it shouldn't have been.

When the light faded and he opened his eyes, it took him a long moment to understand what he was seeing. Because, floating a few feet away from him now… was himself!

This other version of him also had a hand to its head and seemed to be a bit dizzy and disoriented. Then it looked at its hand and freaked out, flailing around so that it almost fell out of the air.

Danny huffed, a bit insulted. It wasn't like his hands were hideous. That was no reason for any double of his to feel ashamed. He was perfectly normal. He looked at his hand and it was…

Green.

And slender. And had pointy fingernails that were well kept and polished. And definitely not his.

Glancing up his arm, he saw golden bangles and sequined bands of fabric. When he turned his head to get a better look at himself, tiny pieces clinked and jangled around his head and long black hair fell into his field of vision. And with the final proof… an exposed midriff and body parts that clearly shouldn't have belonged to him since he was in fact, a boy, he finally realized what had happened. Somehow, he and Desiree had switched bodies.

"What did you do to me?" he shrieked.

Desiree in his body looked up at him with the same expression of dismay on her face.

"It was you who wished—!"

But they were both interrupted by the arrival of Sam and Tucker, breathing hard, but steadily holding their weapons.

"Oh thank goodness," Danny sighed when he saw that Tucker was holding the thermos on his belt. Just what they needed to get Desiree back to Fenton Works without causing further mischief so that they could figure this all out.

Before Danny could tell him to use it, however, he realized that Sam already had her weapon in motion. She'd pulled the trigger of the mini Fenton Bazooka and by the time he noticed that the blast was aimed directly at him, the temporary portal had already opened beside him and he was dragged backward into a sea of floating green doors shouting, "No, Sam, Tuck, you don't understand, it's _me_! That's not…!"


	2. Chapter 2

Desiree, as Danny, had somehow made it through the afternoon undetected.

At first, Desiree's dead skin had crawled with the notion that she had been defiled by this boy's wish, made to take his form, and stripped of all her protective powers. But then she realized that no one would dare lay a hand on the halfa.

At least in his form, she would be safe for a while.

It was hard keeping up the pretense around his friends. Knowing how to respond to the friendly banter of children in this half of the hemisphere and this millennium. She tried to stay away from this particular trio more than any other beings in the living world, so it worried her that she had so little information to go on. To play with.

It was safest for her as a ghost in a mostly human's body to put as much distance between herself and effective if underage ghost hunters. But that would break up the illusion or normalcy faster than anything else. No, she had to stay with them long enough to pass off as their friend. Otherwise, they would blast her, capture her, interrogate her to find answers she did not possess— yes she knew that she'd switched bodies with the halfa and that he was now in the Ghost Zone, but she knew from experience that the device that had been used could spit you into any corner of the ghostly realm. There was no rhyme or reason to where it deposited you and it could take days of wandering to get back home, even if you knew where you were going. The halfa wouldn't and she did not know him well enough to presume what his next step would be. Just that he would eventually try to come back to fix this. To take his body back for his own and to blast her back home.

If she learned enough of his life now, she might be able to find a way to gain the upper hand once that meeting came about. There might be a way to switch bodies without the full fledged battle afterward that she would lose as soon as these two children knew who and what she was. And that she had been fooling them this entire time.

But fooling them was the only way to survive until then, unpleasing as that fact was.

As she paid attention to their interactions, however, she was surprised to find that his companions had the more forceful personalities in the group. They asserted their opinions. All he… she… had to do was laugh and nod. They had already decided to go to the pool for the afternoon, so she just had to play along and fit in with them until that was over and she could excuse herself to "go home" while trying to figure out if there was any possibility of fixing this mess from her end.

They walked down the street and Desiree marveled at the silence. No one was calling her name. No ghosts clamored or plied her with requests. She basked at the lack of interruptions and thoroughly lost herself in the sensation of existing without being bothered by anyone.

She was startled back to reality when Tucker gave his friend a pat on the back and she flinched away like the contact had burned her. She hadn't meant to; it wasn't a reaction in keeping with her undercover persona. Both Sam and Tucker had stopped walking and were staring at her.

"Are… you okay?" Sam asked.

Desiree swallowed heavily and nodded without saying anything. It wasn't the most convincing movement but Tucker backed down with a guilty face, hand hovering back from Danny's shoulder like he'd done something wrong.

"The bruise from Technus still giving you problems?" he asked.

"Ahh, yes," Desiree immediately latched onto the excuse. "Yes, that is it. Sorry…" she trailed off.

"Naw man, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to hurt you."

Desiree paused then, trying to remember the last time anyone had ever apologized to her for touching her without permission or in a way that did not agree with her.

They arrived at the pool before she'd thought of another instance when it had happened.

After they found three white extendable chairs in the sun, Tucker stripped down to his suit and ran for the water, entering with a cannonball that drenched everyone around the edge who'd been hoping to just dip their toes in the water.

Sam rolled her eyes and pulled out a black hat from… somewhere… to pull over her eyes. She took a seat on her plastic chair and didn't look like she was going to move from the spot.

Desiree then looked around, wondering what to do. Danny would probably go into the pool and to do that, he would need to be in a bathing suit. She grit her teeth at the idea. She would need to strip down and expose herself to hundreds of humans.

There was nothing else to be done, though, so off came the shirt. And, after looking round for a minute or two, she realized that no one was staring at her bare chest. Because it wasn't _hers_ , was it? It was skinny and flat and unimpressive and _normal_. And no one looked twice at her now. In this boy's body, she could go unnoticed. Do anything she wanted.

So she looked around and saw the diving boards, practically calling her name. She walked across the pool deck and began climbing to the top where she waited behind a slight blonde who seemed to be scared of heights.

Once it was her turn, though, she dove off as soon as the coast was clear, using the familiar push and pull of the air around her to aid in the execution of a perfect flip, entering the water with hardly any splash.

The sensation of water on her skin and in her, albeit shorter, hair was wonderful and something she thought she would never have again. Memories of her old life… good memories of things she liked and now had the possibility to do again now that she was in a mortal body, came back to her.

She climbed up the ladder, intending to go right back to the diving board when someone stepped in front of her, followed by some friends.

"Hey!" the boy sneered in her face as she stood up. "I said Fentoenail, I'm talking to you!"

When she didn't react, he reached out and grabbed her arm. Desiree pulled it out of his grasp with a shout. "How dare you touch me!" she yelled.

Her mind flew everywhere. Even if they did not know she was a full ghost, they should have known better than to touch the halfa without his permission. Could they not sense his power? Did they not know his status?

Apparently not, because they kept coming forward threateningly, backing her up until she had walked around the corner by the locker rooms. No lifeguards in sight. No Sam or Tucker to help her out of this via purely human methods.

The boy shoved her into the wall. "Didn't know you could dive like that, Fen-tiny. You're always so clumsy in gym."

"Get away from me," she growled, pleased that her voice seemed a little deeper in this body, even if it was still far from commanding.

He smirked. "And what? You're going to make me?"

Desiree blinked up at him. Make him? She could make him stop ten times over, without anyone wishing anything. The halfa could do the same. This set up, with a semi circle of smirking cronies behind him, did not look like an uncommon occurrence. How did this boy not know? How could the halfa not have made it clear that no one in this town could touch him? That he was far and away the most powerful thing they had ever seen.

"Now that I wanna see," the boy grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as he had been pulled through the portal, Danny tried to right himself and turn around to charge right back through it and give Desiree, well, the real Desiree, a piece of his mind. But the temporary portal made by his parents' invention had already closed. There was no getting back that way, he realized as he stared out into the vast void of the Ghost Zone. He would need to find either Vlad's portal or the one leading to Fenton Works in order to get back home.

Not that he knew if either of them would be open so he could get back through. Or where they were from here. Or where _here_ even was. It was just hovering purple doors as far as the eye could see and, while they were distinct enough for a resident to be able to mark their path via the patterns on the doors, there was no way that Danny would be able to travel like that.

Nothing was familiar, so he chose a direction, hoping it would lead him to civilization and not let him cross paths with any of his enemies. Maybe he could find Desiree's lair and hole up there to make a plan. She certainly wouldn't be needing it anytime soon.

But the problem was that he had no idea where her lair was or what it looked like or how on earth he would find it. Maybe if he kept going, he could ask a neutral ghost for directions…

For a while, he floated on, and man it was weird floating in someone else's body where the equilibrium was all wrong and he was top heavy and had too much hair. He kept brushing it out of his face, but it wanted to land in front of his eyes, making the trek through uncharted territory just that much harder. The clinking and jangling of the bangles on his wrist and the bells and medallions on his top (and frankly the less time he spent looking at that the better) threatened to drive him crazy if he didn't find a way to change soon.

He still didn't really know where he was going, though. Or how to get there. His parent's portal was the one he knew best. It had heavy security that would hone in on Desiree's ecto-signature with no reprieve, but he might be able to avoid it long enough to have someone turn it off. If someone was around. And willing to listen. But who knew what Desiree had done in his body already to destroy his already shaky reputation.

Or if the portal was even open. There wasn't a way to unlock it from this side and while he was usually very thankful of that fact, it would have been nice to have a way to get home.

He could always risk Vlad's portal, but he had no clue if he kept it open or closed or what security was like and honestly, the last thing he wanted to do was to meet Vlad in someone else's body.

He'd try the Fenton portal first anyway. Maybe he'd be lucky.

First, though, he had to find the thing.

He spied a blob of something moving out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a low level ghost. Not very sentient, but also not very malevolent, in his experience. Moving closer, he caught its attention.

"Hey, do you know the way to the portal?" he asked, watching in surprise as the thing's watery green eyes went so wide that they took up half of its head. "Um, are you okay?" he asked.

It came closer, and something began ringing in his ears. A rasping noise, guttural and he couldn't understand what it was, even though the tone resonated with something deep inside of him.

"Uh, okay," he said, turning away, "I guess you can't help."

The blob swam after him, latching onto a place near his elbow and shooing it away didn't seem to do anything to it. He wasn't even sure that the thing understood him. But it seemed he had a companion for the rest of his journey.

To somewhere.

As he continued travelling, he picked up more and more of the glassy eyed ghosts that darted around him and wouldn't leave his side. The noise was louder now, and nothing he seemed to do could block it out. The ghosts were everywhere now, swirling around him and making it hard to see. He swatted them out of his way, groaning when even more ghosts came his way, like they were drawn to him like a magnet.

"Gah, get away and stop touching me! I just want to know how to get home!" he shouted. Then a thought struck him. He closed his eyes and said, "I wish to go home!"

Nothing happened, but the noise around him became sharp chittering. The ghosts were laughing at him. When they went back to their normal noises, it was louder, more invasive, and suddenly he understood what they were doing.

They were _wishing_.

He understood bits and pieces now— I want to be faster, stronger, bigger. I want to get out, be left alone, be feared. I want to die, eat, reign— I want to be _stronger_.

Suddenly, his body began reacting to it. It felt like water rushing down his arms as the energy pooled in his hands. "So you wish it," he said before he realized he was saying anything, "so it shall be!" Hands flicked the energy toward one of the ghosts (he hadn't even known which one he'd heard) and it engulfed it, growing it until it had arms and a tail and a mouth full of teeth and its eyes opened a brilliant glowing red.

"No," Danny breathed as he realized what he had just done.

He clutched his hands to his chest, but— _I want to be feared_ —and they began glowing again, turning another tiny ghost into a creature with red eyes and fangs as long as Danny's hand.

It turned to the ghost next to it, latching onto it until it managed to eat the unfortunate creature whole. Danny stared in horror as it looked to eat another ghost, swarming through the pack that divided for him like fish scurrying away from a shark in their midst. It caught another unfortunate ghost by its wispy tail and it, too, disappeared down the gaping maw that now dripped green. The ghost nearly doubled in size at the intake of ectoplasm and it growled.

The other ghosts shrieked and tried to hide behind Danny, forgetting their wishes for the moment. He took the opportunity to blast his creation away with a streak of bright green, and it narrowed its eyes, looking longingly at the ghosts surrounding him before turning and flying away.

Danny heaved a sigh of relief, but had no wish to repeat that process, so before the other ghosts could collect themselves long enough to start wishing again, he zoomed away through them at top speed, hoping to get away from the swarm that took off after him as soon as they realized the genie was on the move.

He flew around islands and past doors and hoped that no one would see him, although that was a useless wish with such an entourage. So he hoped that not many ghosts were out and about and that they wouldn't join in this merry chase, and that they wouldn't have voices that he wouldn't be able to block out.

The ghosts were right on his tail, though, and they were desperate to be heard. He had to turn around once or twice to grant another wish when one of them became coherent enough that he heard. Refusing to build up the power or holding his hands firmly at his sides or straight up into the air didn't stop anything. The power seemed to act on its own, no matter how much he wanted to stop turning these ghosts into evil twisted hungry parodies of the gentle things they were now. He thought of all of the red eyed ghosts he'd smashed or captured in the thermos and his stomach twisted when he realized that this was where they were coming from.

He thought he would be lost in the crowd when he had to slow down, but he kept flying. Learned that Desiree couldn't teleport. And turned invisible to try to lose them. It worked for a little while, but these ghosts seemed to know where Desiree was heading even when he didn't know himself.

But maybe he did and just didn't know it!

He closed his eyes and looked inside Desiree's body for a pull or a tug or anything that would tell him where to go. He flew at top speed in the direction that felt right, not opening his eyes to steer around barriers, just trusting that Desiree's body knew its way home.

After a long time flying and some twists and turns that made all of his bracelets jangle and putting more and more distance between him and all of the ghosts who wanted their wishes granted, he slowed down and came to a stop in front of a shining purple door.

He looked around and didn't recognize any of the landmarks around him.

It had to be Desiree's lair.

But it didn't have a handle on it. Danny panicked, wondering how he could get in if it didn't have a handle. It didn't push open, but when he had put both hands on the door, energy seeped out of his fingers to cover the entire face of the door. There was a series of clicks and finally the door inched open.

Just in time, too, because he could hear them coming again, the pack of ghosts had grown and there were ghosts already shouting their desires before they had even come into view.

He took a deep breath and jumped inside, thinking that nothing could be worse than staying out here, even if he didn't know where he would find himself the next time he opened his eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

It took longer than she wanted to finally bow out of her afternoon with the halfa's friends, but eventually, they let Desiree leave without suspicion and she let her feet—she had _feet_ that she needed to use if she wasn't going to get caught—take her across town until she walked up the steps to Fenton Works.

She stopped at the door, wondering if it was truly a good idea to enter the house of ghost hunters, but there was no choice. She could not give up the ruse now. She was the son of the Fentons and this was her home and she had to pretend like she belonged here or she would be blasted to kingdom come and never allowed a chance to set things right. She would be stuck in this pitiful male body for all time.

Playing the game was unappealing, but being destroyed completely was even more so and if she begged off to remain with Sam and Tucker she would surely be figured out.

So she reached out a skinny arm and opened the door.

If she just kept following her senses, she could walk down to the Portal. Perhaps it would be open and she could simply return home. But she stopped short as Maddie came up the basement stairs to confront her supposed son.

"Danny, is that you?"

"Uh, yes," Desiree said, hoping to avoid the meeting. "I'm just going up to my room."

"No, young man, you are going to come right here."

Her hackles raised at the order; she would never bow down to such demands unless it had been a wish that forced her hand.

"You haven't cleaned your room," Maddie said pointedly.

Desiree's face twisted. "Sorry," she said, hoping that was what children said in such situations.

"Yeah, well sorry's not going to cut it this time, kiddo," Maddie said. "Not when you've been saying that for the past two and a half weeks without doing anything to make it any better. It's a pigsty right now but it's one of your chores and you should know that you need to do it without being told."

"Yes," Desiree said after there had been a pause.

"Then why hasn't it been done?"

"I have been busy," Desiree said, trying to think of what Danny might say. "With school. And… everything else."

Maddie pinned her son with a hard stare. "With hanging out with your friends, you mean? Oh come on, Danny, we know you aren't even turning in all of your assignments because Mr. Lancer called us this afternoon and said that you were late on some critical pieces of homework. Your grade is going to tank but here you are going off to play with your friends and waste your afternoons. That's not being responsible."

Desiree took a step back in surprise. Not being responsible? What did this woman think her son was doing while he wasn't turning in his homework? Homework that was eaten by ghost dogs and blasted into smithereens by Skulker's blasters whenever he'd actually had time to get it done in the first place?

"We're going to have to ground you, Danny," Maddie continued. "Until you straighten yourself out and get this taken care of."

"What?"

"No, you heard me. You need to get your room clean and your grades up. No more sleepovers with Tucker and no more late night movies with Sam, do you hear me?"

Desiree's mouth dropped open. "But…"

"No," Maddie preempted.

She was about to get mad at the curtailed freedom on Danny's behalf when she remembered just in time exactly who she was looking at. One of the most feared ghost hunters for a reason. The woman was lethal even without any powers or suits of her own. She could easily do worse to her than Sam or Tucker would if she found out who Desiree was and what had happened and that she had disappeared her son off to some unknown place.

And Danny wasn't here to make sure Desiree ended up in the Ghost Zone instead of on the operating table.

For all the halfa's faults and self righteous hunting of any supernatural entity who had barely been in the human world for thirty seconds and his horrible ability to gain the upper hand in any battle even when he did not deserve to have it, he did have a streak of humanity that his full human parents seemed to lack. He would send everyone straight back to the Ghost Zone without a moment's leniency, but he always ensured that while he was around, no one would become an ectoplasmic sample in his parents' lab.

So she nodded and was about to walk upstairs to find out just how messy the boy's room was when Jack appeared.

He was a huge hulking man who loomed over her, much more intimidating when she was trapped in a small body with feet on the ground. He had a pan of fudge in one hand and a small metal device in the other.

"Oh, Danny-O!" he shouted in delight.

Desiree had to make a point of not flinching away from him and hoped that the man wasn't the kind to show physical affection with his hands full because she didn't know how she would be able to not respond viciously, which would not end well for anyone.

"Hi," she said, hoping they could leave things at that and that she could escape upstairs and from there perhaps find some hidden notes that could be used to her advantage. The halfa must have been researching and cataloguing his findings if he had scientists for parents, mustn't he?

She was about to make her escape, one foot on the stairs, when the silver box in Jack's hand made a small blip.

Everyone swiveled toward it in surprise.

"That's odd," he said.

"What is it?" she asked, hardly daring to pose the question since she probably didn't want to hear the answer.

"That means there's a ghost around… but you and Mads are the only ones here."

Desiree wondered if it was sensing a full ghost in a halfa's body or if having any humanity left saved one from being targeted by such sensors. It didn't really matter except how it might lead to her exposure here in the house of ghost hunters.

Jack was advancing on her, his huge form towering above her head, box in hand beeping more and more with every step. She wanted to put her hands over her ears to block out the high pitched ringing and run away, but, while that might be the most attractive option, it would probably be the one most likely to lead to her demise. She forced herself to stand stock still as both of the adult Fentons came toward her.

Bracing herself for the worst, Desiree realized that she could fly away if it looked like they were going to attack the body of their son. It would mean that she couldn't get through the portal and wouldn't have a place to stay but she could hide someplace far away from any other humans. And Danny was a more resourceful kid than she had ever expected so there was always the chance that he might come through and set everything straight himself. He couldn't enjoy being in her body and more than she liked being stuck in his.

Jack and Maddie were practically on top of her now. Every muscle thrummed with tension.

Then the door opened and suddenly Jazz was between them, arms encircling Desiree and pushing her parents away. "Leave him alone," she told them, "Danny has homework."

Desiree blinked at the girl, not knowing what to do.

"Go upstairs; I'll throw them off," the redhead whispered to her.

"But…!" Jack began with a pout.

"No! You haven't even finished that thing," Jazz said. "Let Danny try to get his grades up while you go back down to the lab and actually get it to work properly before you attack anything it identifies!"

Desiree stumbled up the stairs to the safety of the halfa's room and for the first time, she realized that even his parents didn't know what he was doing. And that they were just as problematic for him as they were for any ghost. More so, even, because he still lived under the same roof and interacted with them every single day.

She ran down the hall and closed the door behind her, wondering how anyone's life could be more messed up than hers had been.


	5. Chapter 5

Danny slipped through the golden door and closed it shut behind him, sagging with relief against the solid wall. As he caught his breath, locks began engaging with a series of sharp clicks.

He would have thought they were ominous since they locked him in this mysterious place, but at the moment, all he could think about was that it was also locking the swarm of ghosts who were coming after him _out_.

As long as this place didn't try to kill him, it would keep him safe. He knew, somehow, that he, or, at least, Desiree's body and her energy were the only things that could open this door. And none of their wishes would come through the barrier. This was her lair and nothing happened here without her say so.

So hopefully, the lair recognized the body of its owner and didn't hold a grudge that someone else just happened to be unintentionally residing in it for the moment.

Looking up, Danny saw a huge archway in front of him, gilded in beautifully intricate geometric motifs of every conceivable color. And he couldn't just stay in the entry way forever, so Danny decided it was high time to go exploring. See what the rest of this place was like.

Walking slowly through the archway, Danny braced himself to be attacked by booby traps or halted by some kind of force that understood who he was and that he was masquerading as the rightful owner. But nothing happened, so he tip-toed along and turned left, wondering where the mosaic corridor would take him.

The first room he found was built to house a water fountain that bubbled merrily in sunlight that somehow streamed in through a solid roof. He walked around the star like structure, looking at the lotus flower patterns as the water shifted from blue to gold and from gold to purple and from purple to crystal clear droplets that looked like diamonds as they came trickling down the column that rose out of the center.

The side was a perfect height to sit down on and run his fingers through the water, but Danny decided to move on, continuing down the latticed hallway.

It opened up into a great hallway with ceilings rising high up into the air. Every column running down the center of the room had bird cages built into it, the narrow golden bars glistening to match the gems set into the walls.

All of the cage doors were open, and birds flew around the entire room, chirping merrily and coming to swoop above his head and land on the ledges that seemed to be specifically carved into the deep motifs for that purpose. They chirped next to his ear and would have landed on his fingers or shoulder, he was sure, if he'd stayed still long enough to let them.

He held out one hand, tentatively, because the birds seemed friendly and were actually pretty cute. When one lighted down beside him and cocked its head to look at him with glowing emerald eyes, Danny gasped. The birds weren't real at all!

They were made out of gold and precious jewels, even though they could somehow spread their wings and fly and sing and do all of the things that real birds did. He didn't know what magic animated them but, while he had to admit that it was kind of the coolest thing he'd ever seen, it was actually creeping him out a bit too. Okay, more than a little bit.

Danny moved on, floating up a staircase that led to a tower filled with velvet and silken pillows. Even the floor was a plush mattress once he entered the room. Strips of fabric were attached to the wall next to windows to blow gently in the breeze. He could easily fall asleep here, just lie down on the pillows and drift off, forgetting about all of the confusion and panic he'd felt since landing in this foreign body.

But falling asleep wouldn't help him, so he left the sleeping quarters behind him.

There was a suspended walkway that took him over a moonlight courtyard full of trees. Flowering vines trailed up the walls and columns and around the bridge he was standing on.

He had no clue how there was sunlight and moonlight at the same time inside a doorway that existed in a realm that had never known sun or moon, but he'd learned long ago not to question the physics of the Ghost Zone. And he realized that ghosts would probably have total control over their lairs, able to bend any remaining laws of gravity and logic to suit their whims and fancies.

Next was a room filled with a long low table covered by plates and platters of all shapes and sizes. There were bowls with fruit and desserts and fancy pastries and kabobs on skewers that smelled heavenly. He didn't think that he even knew what half of these things were, but they looked so good that he didn't think twice about trying something from every section of the table.

He hadn't even realized how hungry he had been until he started eating. Full ghosts didn't really need to eat, so he figured the delicious spread was there just because ghosts could eat if they wanted to. Missed the taste of food… Desiree had been alive once, after all.

The food was wonderful, and filled him up, giving him the strength he had lost while fighting and worrying and flying halfway over the Ghost Zone in a single morning. At least, he hoped it had all been in a single morning. It was hard to tell time when surrounded by dead beings who had no need for clocks or calendars because they had all the time in the world.

As he continued, licking his long thin fingers of the last of the food covering them, he floated into the next room down the hallway, this time, a warm room with several inches of steaming water lapping against the bright tiles patterning the floor. It smelled like perfume and the tension fairly eased out of him the further he got.

Danny was temped to sit down in one of the alcoves lining the wall that looked like it would be a personal hot tub.

He grinned, then laughed, head thrown back to the steamy ceiling.

This… this was a palace.

Danny wondered then why Desiree would ever want to leave, especially when her body felt calmer and more protected and more _at home_ with every passing moment.

He wanted to stay here longer, if only to feel safe and undisturbed for once in his life.

But as nice as this place was, as lush and luxurious as the ghost's imagination could make it, he really did need to get home and get back into his own body and make sure that Desiree hadn't ruined Amity Park while wearing his face.

Turning, he wondered where the exit was, but he'd come through so many pathways and corridors that now he was all turned around. And he hadn't realized until now just how large and winding and completely _empty_ this place was.

Every sound was magnified against the smooth tile walls. Something twisted deep in the pit of his stomach.

He shivered, and tried to find the door as quickly as possible.


	6. Chapter 6

Desiree looked around Danny's room, taking in all of his belongings. There were NASA posters on the wall next to a Dumpty Humpty one that completely dominated the corner. Dirty clothes lumped together on the floor. An unmade bed. The box underneath it turned out to be a thoroughly rummaged first aid kid with not much left in it but butterfly bandages and tweezers clinking against half empty bottles of rubbing alcohol.

Turning to stand up, and, now that she thought about it she could do better than that, she switched from legs to ghostly tail now that she was alone.

Hovering over his desk, she saw homework that should have been turned in last week that still only had a few scrawls on it. She pushed them aside to see if he had left any notes that might possibly be useful.

She didn't expect there to be a Handy Guide to Switching Back into Your Own Body or How to Undo Genie Curses… especially not when the genie who laid the enchantment didn't even understand how it worked. But it was worth a shot.

No books. No notes on ghostly magic.

When she accidentally brushed against the computer mouse, however, the screen popped back to life and she saw a file saved to the desktop that held promise. Double clicking provided her with a long, ongoing file that looked like it had information on every single ghost the halfa had ever faced.

Skulker, Technus, Young Blood, Ember.

She scrolled down to see the Lunch Lady, the Box Ghost, Kitty and Johnny 13.

Spectra, of course, and on and on.

The sheer number of ghosts he had faced was awe inspiring. The file kept going and when she thought of how much she had gone through in a single day of his life, without even seeing a ghost… well… she couldn't imagine having to keep this up. The school and ghost hunting and pretending to be normal and evading parents who didn't know his secret.

She froze, suddenly struck by the fact that, until she got back into her body, this _was_ her life. This was what she had to go through.

Horrified at the prospect, she hurried on through the file, searching for anything that might help. Anyone he had come across that might be able to undo such a thing. Any stray pieces of information that could give her a clue as to where to even start looking for a solution.

A little further on in the file, she saw a face she knew very well from centuries of looking in a burnished bronze mirror.

She was on here.

Desiree shook herself out of the shock. Of course, she would be on here, on the boy's list of ghostly enemies. Hadn't she sprung from her bottle only to turn his best friend into a half ghost who wrecked nearly as much havoc as she did? Every time she went anywhere, bad things happened.

Her file was a grim and disturbing read. It didn't matter that she hadn't meant to do any of those things, hadn't wanted to do any of those things, was just used as a wish granting machine even when people had no idea what would come of it. But they had only happened because of her. Because she was there. And even she was unable to argue with that.

It only made sense to put all of those incidents under her name.

Desiree read until her eyes stung. It was odd being in a human body again, feeling tired and hungry and unable to keep her borrowed eyes open. Rolling across the air, she let go of flight when over the bed to bounce lightly on top of the mattress.

She was asleep before she even remembered how it was done.

She was woken up by an alarm blaring somewhere and something blue forcing itself out of her mouth. Sitting straight up in bed, she looked around, wondering what was happening. What was making that noise and what had just come out of her body?

Did halfas require maintenance to balance their distinct personas? Was this body going to fall apart before she had a chance to get back into her own?

Before she had much time to think anything else in that alarming train of thoughts, a huge shape flew in through the wall. A large metal suit with a Mohawk and blazing green eyes.

Skulker.

She heaved a sigh of relief. Here was as friendly a face as she would ever find. For all his hunting, the ghost had a very strict set of rules by which he abided and through which his honor was maintained. He had never before dared to lay a hand on her or use her gifts to cheat on a hunt.

He might be able to help.

But with a touch to his arm, a row of gun barrels appeared over his shoulder. Aimed directly at her.

"Whelp, I have you now!" he barked.

Right. Because she wasn't… her. He didn't recognize her at all. He thought she was the halfa. And he…

"I shall have your pelt adorning my wall by sunrise!"

… wanted the boy's skin hanging next to his bed?

"Ewwwwwwww," she grimaced, but then realized that she hadn't moved at all. She scrambled out of the covers and launched herself into the air, darting around the room as the hunter spun to keep his weapons trained on her. "You shall not lay a hand on me!"

The ghost laughed heartily. "That is what you think, is it?" he grinned, switching out the guns for a series of grappling hooks.

She held out her arms imploringly. "Wait, Skulker! It's not me!"

He lifted one unimpressed mechanic eyebrow. "Your games will not fool or distract me, child."

"Except I'm not a child!" she protested. "I'm not the halfa."

"So you finally admit that Plasmius is superior, do you?"

"I do not… hold your weapons!" she cried. "I am Desiree!"

His eyes narrowed. "You had better have a good reason for this ruse, child, and invoking the name of such a ghost."

As much as she appreciated his defending her honor, this was not the time.

"Because I am she!" she said.

"You must prove this," he said, not firing but not standing down.

She wracked her brain for something to say, but nothing came to her, nothing that could prove her identity beyond the shadow of a doubt.

"I wish that you would tell me the truth," he supplied, hopefully, but her face fell.

"I do not have my powers," she explained. "We switched bodies and now I have his powers and he mine…"

A dark expression was the only warning she got before she realized that Skulker did not believe her and thought this was some trick on the halfa's part to not get shot at for a night. She could understand it but was not at all appreciative of getting caught by a sharp hook.

She cried out as she tumbled down through the air, one flailing arm upending the contents of a bookshelf onto the bed.

Books, cds, knick knacks, and a metal cylinder that she recognized instantly. The thermos.

With a cry, she wrenched herself over so that her fingertips grabbed a hold of the device even as the ghost hunter reeled her into a waiting net that she would never be able to free herself from. She pressed the button and the room erupted in blue light which sucked Skulker into the thermos with a cry.

Panting, Desiree righted herself again and held the thermos at a distance, unsure of what to do now.

She cracked her door open, wondering if anyone had heard the commotion, but no one was standing outside the door wondering if Danny was okay. Venturing out of the room, she whirled around when a door creaked open.

It was the redheaded girl. Who yawned and blinked sleepily. "What's up, Danny?" she asked. "Ghost troubles?"

Desiree stood frozen in place and just nodded, glancing down at the thermos in her hand.

Jazz saw it and smiled. "You've done the hard work, little brother. Go back to bed and I'll take care of it," she said, reaching for the metal container.

Desiree swallowed hard as she relinquished control of Skulker's prison, but the girl… Danny's sister… seemed confident in what she was doing. Like they had played this out countless times in the dark of a twilight hallway.

And the bed did sound really wonderful right now. So she let go and turned back to Danny's room, collapsing on top of the bed and hoping that she could survive tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

Danny finally found the door and gathered the courage to unlock it. The big empty palace was thoroughly freaking him out by this point, but he didn't feel ready to be ambushed by a swarm of ghosts right outside the door either, all pushing and wishing to be bigger and faster.

But this was the only way out and he did need to get home. Find a way back to the portal…

He pulled the door open and peered outside, expecting to be mobbed before he even left. But, to his surprise, there was not a ghost in sight. He stepped outside into the swirling green of the Ghost Zone and let the door close behind him.

Turning around, he noticed that the door was not in the same place that it had been before. Before he retreated into Desiree's lair, there had been a set of three purple doors in a row and a freestanding yellow volcano behind him.

Now he was surrounded by a flat space, wavering staircases rising up into the air on either side of him, disappearing into the swirling mist of the Ghost Zone.

His… well, Desiree's… door was the only thing he saw.

Floating forward, he discovered that there was a current in the Zone that whipped his long hair around. It seemed to take him in the same direction as all of the staircases were leading, so, after one last look at the lair, he floated forward until the current caught him and carried him along.

The area seemed deserted. Danny didn't see any ghosts or doors. There were a few rocks with some flowers he'd never seen before and which he bet Sam would think were cool. After a while, though, he got tired of just sitting back and going with the flow, so he flew through the current, adding its speed to his to see where it wanted to take him.

He skidded to a halt when he saw a very familiar sight in front of him. It was the portal. The inside of his parent's portal was right there and by some miracle of miracles it was open and no one else was in sight.

Zooming through, Danny thought about trying to close it to keep anyone else from coming in, but realized that there was no Fenton DNA in his green fingers and that he had already paused long enough for the lab's sensors to start detecting him.

Time to get out of here, then, before Desiree was burnt to a crisp while he was still trapped inside of her.

As he zoomed out of the top of the Ops Center, he frowned, now not knowing where he could go. He couldn't stay in his house. Couldn't access any of the notes in his room or try to fight Desiree in his own home where his parents, sister, and his own body would all be attacking him at the same time.

Confronting Sam and Tucker right away probably wouldn't end well either. He didn't know how he would be able to convince them that he was actually Danny and not the troublemaking genie ghost. That was the only way he would ever be able to get through this though.

Sighing, he decided to make one patrol of the town to see if Desiree had done any damage in the town. Then, maybe he would be able to think of what he should do next.

Turning invisible, he swooped down to fly over the streets, looking for anything amiss.

He realized too late that this close to the town, he could hear everything that people said.

A woman carrying too many shopping bags down the sidewalk wished that they were easier to carry. He tried to stop it, but Danny's hands were aglow and he muttered, "So you have wished it…" wondering just how the request would be answered this time. The woman sprouted three more arms, all as muscled as a football player's so that carrying heavy shopping bags would be no trouble at all. She dropped all of her packages, and went screaming down the street, all five of her arms waving in terror.

Danny turned around before he could make matters worse, flying through the wall of a nearby building, taking shelter underneath a desk.

The sound of typing came at him from every side. The person closest to him stopped and he wondered if he'd been spotted, somehow, even though he was invisible. The disheveled man with a crooked tie sighed and put his head in his hands, however. Then he rubbed his eyes, checked the clock at the bottom of his computer screen, and pushed his chair back, grabbing a folder full of papers.

"I wish I didn't have to go to this meeting," he said.

Danny tried to fly right back out the window, hoping he could pretend he hadn't head a thing, but the power streaming from his core rooted him in place. His bracelet covered arms stretched out against his will, glowing so brightly that it startled him out of invisibility. "So you have wished it…" he grunted as the energy escaped his hands.

"So it shall be…" he trailed off, watching as the green energy pooled around the man and then spread out through the floor and over the walls and up the supports of the building. He watched in horror as the ceiling outside the room of cubicles collapsed, filling the hallway with debris and blocking the workers inside the room.

One of the light fixtures swung down on its wires to crash through the glass doors, knocking over the water dispenser which sprayed all over a row of computers which sparked and fizzled into staticy blue or black screens before tumbling across the floor, bowling over unsuspecting interns and knocking over desks until it crashed through a window and fell down several stories to land on top of a fancy sport car with a sickening crunch.

The office workers slowly emerged from underneath their desks to the sound of the car alarm blaring when it seemed that the worst was over, but an ominous creaking from the walls soon started a round of screaming.

"I wish this wasn't happening to me!" one woman sobbed and Danny almost rolled his eyes and his hands came up to do something about it.

"So you wish it, lady," he said, only to gasp when the woman disappeared entirely, blipped out of the room. He blinked at the place where she had just been standing and hoped that he's managed to teleport her somewhere instead of erasing her from existence or something.

Everyone around him screamed even louder at this new turn of events and he shouted, "Be quiet! I'll get you out of here if you don't say anything, but whatever you do, don't wish for anything. Don't want anything. Don't breathe anything or bad things might happen, okay?"

He got silent nods, although there were still some whimpers thrown in.

"Okay," he said, moving slowly to the two nearest people. "I'm going to fly you outside and set you on the ground and come back up here for everyone else. Just relax and don't freak out on me," he warned as he grabbed their arms, turned them invisible, and flying out through the wall.

It was a quick trip just a few stories down where he deposited them on the sidewalk. The man leaned over to throw up all over the sidewalk and Danny grimaced, then turned to the woman and told her that she needed to keep everyone calm and quiet when they came down. She nodded and he went back up to make another trip. And another and another and another until everyone was out of the destroyed barricaded floor of the building and the news cameras were outside.

He was just about to leave when the newscaster held out a microphone toward the man he'd brought out first and said, "I wish you'd tell us what happened."

Danny yelled in frustration, then said, "So you wished it," as his hands glowed green again, to engulf both of them in green, binding them together until the entire story had been told in every single excruciating detail and _like_ and _um_ known to man.

He actually chuckled a bit as he imagined what the news segment would be like that night before flying far away to sit in a tree in the park. No one would bother him up there. And he was high enough that he could take a breath without being bothered.

But he heard the tiny voice of a child wishing that he wouldn't be bullied travelling up through the branches and he cringed when the boy turned into a tiny ninja who proceeded to thoroughly beat up every single other boy in the park with frightening efficiency.

He couldn't stay here.

He soared away, remembering that Desiree had said once that every time she granted a wish, it made her stronger. The more wishes he fulfilled, the more powerful he became. Which meant that he could be heard further and had to obey the whims of more people in a larger area. It was a never ending snowball effect.

This was a nightmare.

He tried to think of a place where no one would be anywhere near him. Where he could hide. Where he could figure something out to finally confront Desiree without getting thrown back into the Ghost Zone first. He didn't think that he would be able to handle that again. Or this for much longer, for that matter.

Eventually, he landed down in a warehouse on the water. It looked abandoned and he heaved a sigh of relief that he might be able to take a break for a while and formulate a plan.

He was forgetting, though, of course, that abandoned warehouses made excellent hideouts for criminals who wanted to rob banks.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

Danny was finally able to escape his wish granting around the city and figured that confronting his problem head on wouldn't be any worse than what he'd been doing all day. So he shot up into the sky, far out of earshot until he could find his friends.

He caught up with Sam and Tucker again as they hung out with what they thought was him in Sam's basement. They were between movies and Sam was starting up the popcorn machine, Tucker urging her to press every single button on the contraption while she huffed and rolled her eyes.

He saw Desiree— and it was bizarre to think that that was actually Desiree when she was dressed in his t-shirt and his jeans and his sneakers— sitting on the edge of the couch, content to stay out of Sam and Tucker's friendly bickering.

But when blue mist came out of Desiree's borrowed mouth, she sat straight up off the couch and crouched into a defensive stance, glaring at the newcomer until she realized that it was her own body. She relaxed a fraction, but Sam and Tucker joining into the fray more than made up for that fact.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Danny exclaimed with his hands passively in the air as his friends drew weapons on him. "Don't shoot! It's me!"

"Me who?" Tucker asked dryly.

"Yeah," Sam smirked coldly, "the ghost that ruins our lives every time she comes out of the Ghost Zone to turn mailboxes into monsters?"

"No, it's me. Danny," he spelled out when their faces still had blank looks. Now, they turned disbelieving and wary. Wondering what on earth the ghost was trying to pull with such an obvious lie.

"You think we'd fall for something like that?" Tucker snorted. "What are you really after?"

Danny swished his light blue tail and made sure that his hands remained above his head and non threatening. There wasn't much he could do about his face or his voice, which they had always associated with trouble, but he could try to diffuse the situation long enough for him to stay out of the thermos and explain.

"Just let me explain, okay?"

Sam narrowed her eyes. "You have about twenty seconds. And if you so much as twitch, I'm gonna blast you."

"Fair enough," Danny licked his lips. "So, the other day when Desiree showed up…"

"You mean, when you showed up," Tucker corrected.

"Dude, Tuck, I'm down to like fifteen seconds now." Then, turning back to Sam, he said, "I couldn't find the ghost. Before I knew who it was, I wished that I didn't have to deal with this sort of crud and then all of a sudden BAM big light and when I opened my eyes, I was in this body and she was in mine," he pointed across the room to where Desiree sat wide eyed on the couch.

At the accusation, she rose in the air and was about to disappear through the wall when Tucker stopped her by pulling a gun of his own. "Stop! Nobody move."

Then he and Sam looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do next. How to resolve this stalemate and understand what on earth was going on.

"I wish… that things would go back to normal…?" he asked, as if expecting this to backfire at any moment. "If they weren't already normal…?"

Danny could feel the pull and tug of the energy beginning in his belly again, and coalescing in his hands. "So you wish it," his voice said. "So it shall be!"

And amid screams from both ghosts, another huge blast of light filled the room and both spirits were tugged and pulled and squashed into shapes that they were almost unused to.

Wiggling his fingers, Danny realized that he was back to normal. His skin was no longer green and his hair was only as wild and unruly as it had ever been. He had legs and he used them to dance around in a circle, whooping in excitement. "Yes! I'm me again! Thanks, Tuck!"

Sam watched the celebration for only a moment before realizing what it meant. With wide eyes, she turned to the couch, where Tucker now had his weapon trained on the wish granting ghost that had pretended to be their best friend… and gotten away with it. She finally understood why Danny had been acting so strangely. It was because it hadn't been Danny at all. But a ghostly imposter.

She raised her gun, intending to blast the fake right back to where she belonged, but Danny had started paying attention to the world around him again. Just when he realized that either his friends were about to shoot or Desiree was about to run away he shouted, "Stop!"

Everything paused for a moment.

"Everyone, just stop what you're doing. Hold on." He walked forward. "Sam, Tucker, put your weapons down."

"But Danny…!" they protested.

"It's okay," he said, walking forward and looking up at the ghost with a new understanding in his eyes.

"Hey," he said softly. "So, um. Sorry about all of that," he began. "If you had half as rough a time as I did the past couple days, then… well…" he trailed off.

She eyed him warily, but thought that he was sincere in his words. She chose hers carefully. "I think you realize… that I have not meant to cause such problems," she offered, tentatively.

"I know," Danny smiled. "So… truce?" he asked, offering up a hand to her.

Desiree eyed him carefully, looking for any hidden meanings in his actions but finding none. "As far as it is in my power," she allowed, reaching down to shake the hand of a male voluntarily for the first time since she had died.

He grinned up at her. "About that…" he said. "Desiree… I wish… that you only have to grant the wishes that you want to grant."

She stared at him in shock before her face slid into a smile. "So you have wished it," she began as the light built up in her hands and cascaded out until they had enveloped her.

Sam and Tucker looked on, not quite understanding why things had happened this way, but pleased that it looked like they would be having a lot less trouble with Desiree in future and might even have found an ally in her.

"So…" Tucker said. "Now can I wish you home?"

She turned to look at him.

"Uninterrupted by any ghosts in The Zone?" Danny added.

She beamed radiantly at the trio. "So it shall be.


End file.
